During the first and second round of the presidential elections I always had a problem with regarding President Mohamed Morsy as a real human being with real dreams, real fears and ambitions. I always viewed him as something unreal and virtual, a construct representing the Muslim Brotherhood. It naturally didn’t help that he was an alternate candidate, always in the shadows, or that when he got presented to us he had no real personality to begin with. I had resigned myself to view him, like many others like me, as a puppet, a front to whatever unholy alliance the SCAF and the MB were creating. However, very recently, I started to ignore my prejudices and take a closer look, especially with the fiasco surrounding the reassembling of parliament.

Please don’t misunderstand; my rethinking had nothing to do with Morsy’s decision and its aftermath. Far from it. Something else entirely caught my attention, and I am sure many other as well, as to the timing of the decision and the reversal of it, also where Morsy was at this time, especially when recanting the decision. The presidency issued the decree cancelling the former decree bringing back the parliament and apologized around 6 pm last Wednesday. Did Morsy announce this very important and politically dangerous decision, after the political firestorm his first decision caused himself? Nope, it was the presidential spokesperson who did. Mr Morsy was in fact not in the country at the time, but rather in Saudi Arabia on an official visit. The question that everyone should ask is how did that happen?

The bringing back of parliament by presidential decree, and the constitutional court decision to strike that decree down, was a momentous stand-off, and one that cornered Morsy and galvanized many sides, for and against, meaning that the decision to take back that decree had to be politically calculated by advisors (political, legal, media) with the President himself being involved in drafting it. That didn’t happen. Instead, Morsy flew to Saudi (alone mind you – with no entourage of any kind) in the morning, and the decision came out of the presidency while he was in a meeting. Who took that decision? Who drafted it? We know that the original decree was announced the next day to a Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Council meeting, which means that they were the ones that drafted it, so if the one recanting it happened while he was away, then they drafted it as well. This means that the argument that Morsy has no powers due to the supplementary constitutional declaration by SCAF is false; Morsy has no power because the Guidance Council are the ones making all the decisions for him. This is why no government has yet been announced, with Essam ElArian, who has no official capacity in Morsy’s government, announcing its developments, instead of Morsy’s office itself. Morsy, literally, is the Guidance Council’s puppet and is being used by them during their continuous negotiations with the SCAF. Do you ever wonder what that must be like?

Imagine that one day a group of people you trust and are related to come to you with the proposal: they will start a huge company that will do great things, and they need you to be its CEO. They promise you a huge salary and all the prestige in the world, while assuring you that you won’t actually have to do any of the work, but rather that everything will be taken care of by very capable people, ones that they will choose. It sounds awesome at first: all the glory, none of the work, so you accept. And then those very capable people start managing things very badly, which brings the heat on to you. People start calling you, asking you how you could take this or that stupid decision, and urging you to use your power to fix things. But you have no power, so you call those who are under you, basically begging them to stop messing things up, and that’s the extent of your power. Everyone is mad at you, for reasons that are not under your control but are happening in your name, and there is nothing you can do about it. Doesn’t sound so great now, does it? If it was you, you would quit. But Morsy can’t quit. And he is not a CEO, he is the revolution’s president, and it has only been a month. Four more years of this – imagine.

Morsy is not a construct, no matter if that is how he appears to me. Morsy is a human being. He has a family. He has children. The children have friends, are on facebook and twitter, and watching the world asking daily why their father took this decision and didn’t take that decision, and they call him to tell him what’s going on, asking that he takes a decision, and he can’t. All the prestige, none of the power, in the middle of a war aimed at you. Slowly everything seems hollow to him, and he struggles with notions of self-respect and dignity. Morsy had a cause, he went to jail for that cause, and now he is being asked to be the martyr for this cause, but without any honourable death involved. Instead, it’s a death by a thousand paper cuts. And it has only been a month.

Did you know that Morsy was not officially invited to Saudi Arabia? That the Ambassador gave him a cordial diplomatic invite simply positing that Saudi is looking forward to his probable future visit, and that Morsy jumped on the opportunity and told him that he is coming tomorrow, alone, and without an entourage of any kind? Morsy was literally escaping to Saudi and while he was there he did an Umra, during which he was pictured crying. Again, it has only been a month. How long until Morsy, the human, cracks?

There are 85 million human beings suffering. They are the ones that should be at the center. Not a man who knew exactly what he was getting into.

Anna

“We know that the original decree was announced the next day to a Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Council meeting, which means that they were the ones that drafted it, so if the one recanting it happened while he was away, then they drafted it as well.”

Dear God!! The Egyptian education system really needs a complete overhaul if this is the kind of rationale that Egyptians are taught!

So using Sandmonkeys theory we can safely assume that if the Times of London recants a story about the UK parliament issuing a law to stop motorists driving down Oxford Street, then logically IT MUST have been the Times of London who drafted and announced that law!!!?

Seriously Sandmonkey. You have a lot of followers and saying things like this is not only dumb but dangerous!

Go to a european school and learn critical thinking.

Firas

Hate to state the obvious, Anna, but you do know that The Times of London is a media outlet while the MB is a political party, right?! See the difference? Or is this something only those lucky enough to get a European education can see?

George

bullshit did it ever occur to you that the reason he has been taking so long to form a government is that he wants to get it right to choose the right people to make wise decisions and not just rush into it

there are so many lines in this article that are nonsense but it would take too long to explain to you because your hatred for anything NOT young and foolish over rides everything

Maturity is what is needed and that is so often lacking in the youth of the revolutionaries, the mouth pieces like you and Gigi Ibrahim who have nothing to offer. Who love to sit in front of CNN and BBC talking your crap with no adult undertanding of the world at large and it’s complexities.

In fact what to do is more dangerous to Egypt than the MB could ever be.

You play your flute in the US orchestra perfectly and are seen as only rich kids with no jobs and adding nothing to the economy.

Why not go out and find a job and do a days work and help Egypt instead of writing this crap and I am a Westerner. Someone who loves Egypt. You and your ilk mosty likely spend your days in City Stars and weekends in Sokhna or Sharms bars drinking tequila and Starbucks.

Yeah REAL patriots! huh!

Ahmed

khairat al shaters son just opened 20 franchises in nasr city to bring cheaper food to the poor and to expand to many more. What has mr sandmonkey done to help egypts economy apart from his weekly order to drinkies?

egyptians are tired now listening to the bloggers who say too much and do nothing.

IF sandmonkey loved egypt he would be heading teams of egyptians to clean the streets.

That would be better for egypt instead of the usual nothing………nothing……nothing but talk

Caroline

Then, next question : what will happen when that human being in that position will crack ? Has anybody read Britannicus by Jean Racine ?

It sounds a lot like the Iranian model. who would have thought? Your writing is always insightful, and informative. However this is ominous for Egypt’s future.

helen

We’ve been around this bush before: So once again we ask, ‘who is running Egypt?’ The people? SCAF? MB? Judiciary? or dreading this but it must be said, Foreigners? – and that doesn’t mean of the Western kind, though they too always try to have their say & money in matters. Will the President’s chair ever be more than the puppet’s pulpit? It is obvious President Morsy wants to do what’s best for his country, but we need to remember, it’s like being up against ‘hell’ – he has to outwit the Devil to give Egypt a future not just an existence there are so many crooks who don’t want their lifestyle changed. The fraudulent behaviour so deeply embedded in this society, I wouldn’t give a ‘thank you’ for his role and the job he is faced with, even though being part of paving a new Egypt should be an honour. So you think it was the MB Guidance Council at play here – alas for the President to leave the country at such an important point of challenge means he already knew the outcome and who whats to be answering the media as the loser in the toss for supremacy, though it does paint a bleak picture for any more prospective confrontations over laws and matters of control. As for picking a cabinet, what does Egypt know about governing, in all it’s years of existence, that is fair to all it’s citizens and who from amongst those very citizens will lay aside all their prejudices to bring life, peace and prosperity to this mummified country. He’s been thinking about it since pushed into the role as candidate, getting it right is going to take a lot of tears/years.

Zoheir Abouguendia

Hey Ustaz Mahmoud. It seems to me that your article cannot be considered an analysis or even a mere comment. You have got it all wrong (and I am not MB or belong other political current). I was going to go reply in detail but after HELEN published her comment I decided not to. Helen put things in perspective in a nice and mature way. I just want to add that you must have had hard time trying to find something useful you can write about. My advice try to find some advice council of your own to do it for you and stop monkeying around. God be with you Mr. (or Sayed) Mahmoud.

Z. Abouguendia

Ustaz Mahmoud. To me your article cannot be considered an analysis or even a mere comment. You have got it all wrong (and I am not MB or belong other political current). I was going to go reply in detail but after Ms. HELEN published her comment I decided not to. Helen put things in perspective in a nice and mature way. I just wanted to add that you must have had hard time finding something useful you can actually write about. My advice to you: try to find some “an advice council” of your own to do it for you and stop monkeying around. It might be more useful for the reader. God be with you Mr. Mahmoud.